


The Sunkeepers

by booksteaandme



Category: The City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
Genre: Dystopian, F/M, Family, Fighting, Friendship, Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 23:12:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7820962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksteaandme/pseuds/booksteaandme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the anomalies strike in the tunnels bringing Ash and Thistle to Rina Burrows' column just before her marking, she uncovers secrets about the Sunkeepers. Secrets that reveal why they are trapped underground in the first place, but how far will they go to keep their secrets hidden?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sunkeepers

**Author's Note:**

> I'm knew here and still trying to figure it out. This is my first post so please let me know what you think about this first chapter and let me know if you would like to see more of it.  
> Enjoy!

**The Sunkeepers**

 

One.

I crouch at the base of the tunnel wall, digging at the green life peaking though a crack in the ground. I know I shouldn’t be this deep in the tunnel; the sunkeepers would kill me if they found me out here, literally. But I have to get away from the column sometimes; especially now that the marking ceremony is tomorrow.  Today is the last day of my freedom.

I hold my last piece of hope in the palm of my hand. I barely ever find life in the tunnels; the sunkeepers make sure of that. They make it their personal duties to search the tunnels extracting any form of life held within them. I beat them to it though sometimes. I have a small box of life under my bed in my cave apartment. I don’t know the names of the different flowers in my box; but I know I don’t have one like this.

It’s a small and fragile looking purple flower. Usually the ones I find in here are yellow, orange, or red. But this one; this one is the palest purple I have ever seen. _It’s damp._ It must be raining on the upper and I inhale deeper than I have before tying to let the smell of mud fill my lungs. Small drops water hit the ground where the flower was and I rub the wetness between my fingers thinking about how life could be on the upper. Until I hear something.

The sunkeepers are coming. My heart is beating so hard it could tear a hole in my chest and my hands are shaking so fast that I almost drop my flower. _My life is over._ I contemplate running, but quickly push the thought out of my mind realizing that no one can out run an arrow, especially from the sunkeepers. I’ve made up my mind. I’ll accept the consequences; I’ll accept death.

“I thought you’d be down here,” a dry, raspy voice says from behind me; a familiar voice, “you haven’t changed one bit Rina.”

“Alec,” my heart drops and my eyes flood with water, “you look very dapper in your uniform,” I tease.

His dry lips crack into a smile and he shakes his head, “come here,” he says opening his arms for me.

“It’s been too long big brother,” four years too long to be exact, “I thought I would never see you again,” I blurt out choking on my tears.

“I can’t stay for long,” he says after taking a deep breath, “they only let us come back for the marking ceremony tomorrow.”

“What!” I shout trying to escape his arms that are wrapped around me, but fail.

“There are some complications stirring in the other columns that I can’t talk about, but I’m going to protect you Ri, my job will always be to protect you.” He was marked into the war four years ago, along with another boy. The marking took him from me.

“You’re a soldier not a sunkeeper!” I bark at him. The soldiers and sunkeepers are the hero’s of the column. The soldiers continue to fight the war that’s been going on for centuries, the war that sent us down here. And the sunkeepers patrol the tunnels for the anomalies that terrorize the columns. I’ve never seen them before but I’ve heard stories of people that went missing from the column. Our columners have been abducted and eaten by the anomalies. The only things left of one of our columners were her fingernails; not even her bones were left. Apparently the anomalies use our bones as weapons.

That’s one of the reasons we aren’t allowed this far in the tunnels. Other than anomaly slaughtering the sunkeepers settle disputes between the other ten columns and bring light to ours. No one knows how, it’s a secret I guess, but we wouldn’t have any light if it wasn’t for them.

I’ve lost myself in the smell of Alec’s uniform, it smells of the upper, “what’s it like up there?” I ask trying to change the subject.

“Almost as beautiful as you,” he says instantly smiling, “I can’t wait to take you up there,” he pauses, “I can’t wait until we can take everyone there.”

“I want to see it Alec, I want it more than anything.”

“Just know this,” he say, “the sunkeepers could never give us the sun. No matter how hard they tried.”

“How can there be so much light Al?” I ask picturing millions and millions of screwed in glasses of light on the upper.

“There’s more light than you could ever imagine on the upper, and I’m going to take you to it,” he said wiping the dampness off my cheeks.

Even though it’s dull I can still see the difference in Alec’s appearance. He’s stronger than he was four years ago; I can feel it in his arms. His jaw bone is sharp and he’s much taller than he was when he was sixteen. His grey uniform is perfectly pressed and lies against his perfect golden skin. Gold buttons drip down the front of his uniform in rows of two and under his ranking badges and pins hangs a gold star.

“What’s this?” I ask rubbing my thumb over the two guns engraved on it.

“A medal of honor,” he pauses looking down at me, “given to me by General Perish.”

“What?” I can’t control my gasp, “how did that happen?”

I can tell he doesn’t want to tell me, but he knows I won’t let it go, “There was a bomb planted on our base by the uppers and-”

I back away not letting him finish, “a what?!”

“I ran it to the ocean with less than three minutes on it. On my way back to the base a sniper shot me in the back-”

“What?!” I yell again.

“But it just missed my heart. I’m okay Rina I promise, no need to worry.”

“Oh so you get a dingy gold star as a thank you for almost losing your life? Twice!”

“Ri-” he tries to finish saying my name.

“No,” I say turning to leave the tunnel. And then I change my mind, I forgot he didn’t choose this life. The marking chose it for him. The marking put his life in danger, the marking almost got him killed; he would never leave me by choice.

“Your medal isn’t dingy,” I say turning back to him, “you were so brave, it’s just that you’re all I have left after mom and dad were-”

“I know,” he says not letting me finish, “but I would never leave you Rina, even if I didn’t have breath in my lungs I would fight to stay with you, I always will.”

I press my forehead into his chest and stay there wishing he never had to leave again, “so you’re here until after my marking huh?” I mumble, “I gotta show you my dress, Ms. Marge made it especially for me. She said I would have made mom proud. I wish mom and dad could see you now,” I say looking up at his brownish green eyes, “I wish they could see this,” his medal shines even in the darkness of the tunnel.

“They can,” he smiles, “and they’ll see you get marked tomorrow,” he stops and looks at me, “they’ll be proud of you.”

I hate talking about them, I try my best not to. But when I do, it plays on repeat in my mind. The day they died is still a perfect picture in my head-

_“Alec get your sister and go inside now! Your father and I will meet you there,” my mom said out of breath. She ran here._

_“But mom I’m not done playing, this is my favorite game. The activity center closes in an hour, I’ll get Rina when I’m done,” Alec said looking at his opponent as if he could see his next move in his eyes._

_“No. Now,” she hissed though closed teeth._

~

_“Alec, why did you pull me away from Poppy? My turn was next,” I whined all the way to our apartment._

_“Mom made me!” he yelled at me as we ran up the stairs, “but look everyone else is running to theirs too.”_

_And they were, people were running up the spiral stairs that run up the column to their apartments and sealing their doors shut. There was a stampede of people pushing and shoving; then the alarm sounded._

_“What’s going on!? I kept asking. But there was no point, Alec knew as much as I did._

_“There they are! At the bottom of the stairs,” Alec said looking at them through the door way, “they’re telling us to close the door!”_

_Looking around everyone else’s doors are sealed shut, they all peer through their glass looking down at my parents._

_“Close the door!” they screamed again. And again. And again. Our apartment may be at the top of the stairs, but I could see my mom.  She was crying._

_“No! Come on! Run! Please!” Alec yelled down to them._

_But there wasn’t enough time, the alarm stopped sounding and our door automatically sealed shut._ _We were left with our faces pressed to the glass looking down on them, banging on the glass and wondering what was going to happen next._

_One of the columns released a poisonous gas. They started coughing and seizing; my dad threw up blood. They were dying and we were watching; everyone was._

_“No! Alec and I screamed banging on the glass. We didn’t care if we died getting to them. We just wanted to be next to them. No matter how much we screamed, or cried or banged on the glass, our door wouldn’t budge. Not even a little._

_People looked at us and then back at them, and then turned away._ _They held each other as they died at the bottom of the stairs. And Alec held me as we drained our bodies of tears from our sealed apartment._

“Rina,” Alec says waving his hand in my face, realizing I completely zoned out.

“Sorry I-” I stutter, “I want you to have this,” I say holding up the purple flower I just picked.

“Don’t you want to put it in your box?” He asks shocked.

I shake my head, “no, it will keep you safe.”

At least I hope it will. Besides what good will it do in a box? After the silver mark is branded on my arm revealing my fate, he has to leave again. At least this time he can take something with him; something that will remind him of hope, of life, of me.


End file.
